Granville school district residents weigh in on four proposed options for managing growth in the district

Originally published for The Reporting Project on April 17, 2025

After a brief presentation outlining four possible options for managing growth of the Granville Exempted Village School District, Superintendent Jeff Brown asked the more than 60 people in the high school commons on April 15 to pause in silence for two minutes to contemplate what they had just heard before sharing what they might see as the pros and cons of each.

The room was not silent for a second. Faint whispers quickly grew into full-volume chatter, and then into lively discussions and furrowed brows as district residents, young and old, grouped around posters describing each option, waiting to write their thoughts on big sheets of paper. 

“It’s hard to like any of them,” said Mark Pinkerton. “I grew up in Granville, and all the kids were together.”

Elementary students currently attend two different buildings, with kindergarten through third grades in the oldest building in the district, at Granger and Sunrise streets, and at the Intermediate School on New Burg Street, which is for grades four through six. One reason for that structure is to keep all students in each grade “banded together,” rather than designating two or more buildings for grades K through six, as some communities do.

The thought of a third building for elementary grades, as is proposed in one of the options, “feels very foreign,” Pinkerton said. “If I had to choose tonight, I would probably stick with grade-banding because that’s what feels traditional to Granville.”

Pinkerton’s daughter, Ellie, a Granville fifth-grader, was similarly disheartened.

“I really don’t like any of the options, but I think it would be really weird to have three elementary schools and to have K-6 all in one school,” she said.

The workshop was the third in a series of three public planning meetings held by the district since January. The first laid out the issues facing the district, such as enrollment growth, academic programming, staffing, building capacity and age, busing, and the cost for all of that. The second meeting, in February, was a workshop to hear the priorities for the district going forward. Those priorities were used by the district’s Strategic Planning Task Force to develop the four options presented on April 15.

And that workshop was designed to allow residents to share their thoughts – pros and cons – about each of the four options.

The task force has been gathering information for planning purposes since 2022, when Intel announced plans to build a $28 billion computer-chip manufacturing campus – and bring as many as 3,000 full-time jobs to Licking County. The planning process took on greater urgency when M/I Homes of Columbus proposed building a 600-home subdivision in the City of Heath, but in the Granville school district, potentially adding an estimated 960 more students to the 2,600-student district.

The task force will use the feedback from the April 15 meeting to develop a final recommendation for the school board to consider in May. Details about the planning process and recordings of the planning meetings are available on the district’s website.

The four options developed by the task force assume 275 students per grade and all-day kindergarten. This is a step up from the current numbers, as according to Brown, the district graduates between 190 and 235 students. Right now, none of the options laid out include operating costs.

Option One: Keep all students in each grade together in the same building

Option one is based on “grade bands,” meaning all students in a particular grade would attend the same facility. This was a priority mentioned by district residents, because it is how the district has been structured for many years. It also reduces the opportunity for cross-town rivalries. The plan includes a new facility for grades six through eight, with a location to be determined; an addition to the Intermediate School for grades three to five; and renovations to the existing elementary, intermediate, middle- and high-school buildings. The existing elementary school would house kindergarten and grades one and two. Phase one of this option – the construction of a new building – would cost $44,516,876, with additions costing $7,754,348 and renovations costing $11,415,330. Total estimated cost is $63,686,554.

Option Two: A campus concept

Option two is a campus concept, which prioritizes the school buildings’ proximity to each other. This plan is financially identical to option one, but it has a set location for the new sixth to eighth grade facility, next to the existing intermediate school. Notably, this option would not involve grade banding.

Option Three: A new K-6 elementary in Heath (Union Township)

Option three is a long-range plan wherein current buildings would remain as they are, with renovations, and a new building housing kindergarten to sixth grades would be built in the new M/I Homes subdivision on land that the district hopes to acquire through donation. On top of this, GIS and GES would house kindergarten to sixth grade as well. This option, which also would not involve grade-banding, would cost a total of $83,987,261. 

Option Four: A new K-6 elementary on the east side of Granville Village

Option four proposes a new elementary school building on the east side of Granville on the Munson Springs property, which is land the district would have to purchase from the village of Granville. (The village has been considering options to develop a park on the 57-acre parcel on the north side of Newark Granville Road.) The only difference between options three and four is the location of the new building for grades K through six, with option four being somewhat closer to the district’s existing buildings, all of which are north of the Rt. 37 freeway. The estimated cost of this option is $83,987,261.

Some of those in attendance on April 15 worried about the social and financial differences that some of the options could create.

“I came from Mount Lebanon and Pittsburgh, where the schools were walkable schools, and there were seven different elementary schools, which was great, except that there were [some] neighborhoods with richer houses. It just wasn’t quite equitable,” said Halley Bowman, who added that Granville can avoid that with grade-banding.  

Some parents wrote about the “con” they would face – the logistics for families who have several children in different grade levels, all going to school in different buildings.

“Having three kids and having to go to three different buildings for different activities and pick-ups – and getting three different building emails every week – is exhausting as a parent,” said Kelly Van-Buskirk. “It’s much easier to just build a community in one building.” 

Van-Buskirk is against options one and two specifically, but in favor of option 3 for its flexibility.

District resident Bryn Bird – who is also a Granville Township trustee – agreed.

“I do think that the long-range one has a lot of flexibility or a lot of options,” Bird said. “I have three kids in school, and I do know that staying together and being with their classmates is really important.”

Suki Lucier was also in favor of flexibility but saw it most prominently in option four.

“What I like about four is that I think it has flexibility and scalability, and some of the other options don’t,” she said. “Considering the current economic forecast and uncertainty that’s going along with all that, particularly the housing market and all of that, it seems like the best option.”

Beyond location, age dynamics were a concern for other parents as well.

“I feel the 6th graders are a bit older and have different needs,” said Ashwin Lell. “Mixing them in with the fourth and fifth graders doesn’t sound like the right fit to me.” 

As the discussions quieted and residents filtered out of the building, they left their comments in Crayola colors on eight large sheets of paper, a pro and con sheet for each option.

Option one had the best pro/con ratio, with eight pros and 12 cons, followed by option three with eight pros and 17 cons. Option four had four pros and 12 cons, and option two had five pros and 17 cons.

Next steps: Develop a final plan and present it to the school board

“This feedback will go back to the 40 task force members,” Brown said at the April 15 meeting. “They’ve been doing this work for almost two years, so they have a little bit of a different perspective than most. They’ll take the pros and cons and they’ll try and synthesize it for the board to understand the different feedback that they receive.”

Further planning will emerge in June or July of this year, but Brown stressed that this will all be “written in pencil,” and subject to changes based on public reaction and district needs. As that plays out, Brown is eager to engage with the public, listen to feedback and correct course if necessary.

“I think there might be some options with so many cons related to the feasibility that we can drop them,” Brown said. “There might be like a short-term plan, potentially long-term in the phasing that we have articulated that could be a fifth alternative that comes from this process.”

Annual homeless census faces increased challenges after Newark camping ban

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Feb. 6, 2025

The railyard at the end of East Locust Street in Newark is expansive and barren, filled with nooks and crannies. It’s dark, empty and out of the way – a less-than-perfect, but available place to lay one’s head when there is seemingly  nowhere else to go.  

But no one is sleeping here tonight. It’s too close to the town center. Dozens of footprints lead through the snow, finally coming to the opening, revealing nothing. So much nothing. Despite the undeniable shelter it provides, the area under a Rt. 16 overpass and above the railroad tracks is empty – except for Anthony Daniels. 

Mud crawls up his shoes even now that he’s on a paved path, and a brisk, cold wind snakes through his two coats as he brings an unlit cigarette to his lips. 

Daniels, an unsheltered person in Newark, is helping Alejandra Leon and Mark Louden conduct the annual point-in-time count – or PIT Count – for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The PIT Count, conducted in communities across the country, is a census of unsheltered people collected on one night in January each year.

In Licking County, this happens through the Licking County Coalition for Housing (LCCH). The process, on Tuesday, Jan. 28, was led by Rachel Duck in two teams starting from the Canal Market District just south of the Licking County Courthouse. Duck, Brandi Ringhiser and Doug Price went to Buckeye Lake, while Louden and Leon covered the city of Newark. 

The morning after, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, the LCCH called shelters across Licking County to get an accurate picture of how many people sought emergency shelter that night. Final census data will be compiled over the next few months. 

Leon and Louden were speaking to Daniels in a clearing near the railroad tracks next to Everett Avenue east of downtown Newark, where once there were dozens of tents, interconnected and even padded by carpeting put down on the ground in a small stand of trees.  Now only the tire tracks and footsteps of the people who used to shelter there remain. 

They ask Daniels questions about where he planned to sleep that night, his gender, race and ethnicity, whether he ever served in the U.S. Armed Forces, how long he has slept outside, or if he has any chronic health issues, among other questions. 

The whole interview process takes a little more than 4 minutes, with 19 questions, some including sub-clauses.

“HUD likes winter because people literally have nowhere to go if they’re out in the cold,” Duck said.

That means more unsheltered people are likely to stay in a shelter than outside – making them easier to find, easier to count, and easier to interview for the PIT process.  

Following the adoption in October of Ordinance 24-36, which created misdemeanor charges punishable by fines and jail time for people found guilty of camping on public property, unhoused people in Newark seem to have scattered from downtown and into more remote areas.

In addition to the ordinance, Newark officials said they are actively working to develop a “home” court within the Licking County Municipal Court to hear criminal cases that arise because of such laws, and to create a “diversion” option for anyone who is cited under the camping-ban laws.

Diversion programs offer a sentencing option for judges hearing such cases. A judge can offer a defendant the opportunity to go through a diversion program – a series of training programs and services designed to help the person get back on track toward stability. If the defendant agrees to the rules of the program and successfully completes it, the judge can release that person from the program with no criminal record.

But since the ordinance passed, unsheltered people in and around Newark say they’re doing what they can to stay under the radar outside of city limits. 

“I gotta watch what I’m doing much, who I’m around,” said Walter McKeithen, 43, an unhoused man in Newark. “Normally, the police are basically watching everybody. I’m shocked now they ain’t even driving down the bike path, they drive down, and up, and down, making sure ain’t nobody put up no tent, ain’t nobody laying down here or up under the bridges.”

Louden and Leon say that LCCH were expecting to count a lower number of unsheltered people in Newark this year. While conducting their survey, they interviewed just six people Tuesday night. 

“We’ve known for the past few months about people being run out of their encampments and going back deeper [in the woods] or going elsewhere,” Louden said. “So the lack of finding people today, no, I’m not [surprised].”

In 2024, the PIT count survey showed an estimated 176 people in Licking County were homeless on any given night. That’s a 52% jump from 2023, when estimates showed about 116 people were homeless. 

But that data is a best estimate, and the actual number of unsheltered people in Licking County could actually be higher. 

According to Louden, HUD only allows the count to take place in specific areas, which has the potential to skew the results. The teams are given fixed routes that they are allowed to follow, which may only be a small section of a road or railway track.

“They give us a map, sometimes the map is near places where we know there are people but we can’t go outside that area, it doesn’t get counted,” said Louden. “We have no idea how they [those areas] are decided.”

Throughout the count, each team approaches unhoused people, reads the given script and asks them questions. There was no question 11. The teams were given a guidance package, along with the app, Counting Us, to carry out the count.

Winter used to make the PIT count an easier process. Counters could follow footprints through the snow until they came to tents. This year the footprints just keep on walking.

This is a stark contrast to 2024’s Point in Time count, according to Louden and Leon.

“Honestly, if this was last year, there’d be people walking up and down Main Street all the time, all night long. But since the ordinance has passed, you don’t really see that happening anymore,” said Louden.

“People are staying in different places that are so far back […] or out in the woods really deep,” said Louden.

Unsheltered people in Newark are faced with a choice: move out of the city or risk being reprimanded, fined and, eventually, jailed. No matter which choice they make, each one could affect their quality of life.

“Just the knowledge that if they know they can get a ticket or be taken to jail, why risk it?” said Leon.

But by ‘avoiding the risk’ of jail time, unsheltered people actually face more challenges the further away they move. 

“It’s both safer and more dangerous,” said Louden. “You’re safer from law enforcement, but the further out you go, the more you can’t get to resources if you get sick.” 

All six people Leon and Louden spoke with were walking. They saw no one in a tent.

At a temperature just shy of freezing, and with the unhoused venturing further from the city limits, Newark’s housing crisis may be less visible, but it remains ever-present.

Heath council approves ‘camping ban,’ saying plans for a special court to help unsheltered people persuaded them to vote ‘yes’

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Feb. 19, 2025

Three and a half miles south of where volunteers were caring for 44 unsheltered people at an emergency warming center in Newark, Heath City Council members voted unanimously and without discussion on Feb. 18 to ban “camping” on public property.

Inside the Heath municipal building, the temperature was comfortably warm. Outside, it was 12 degrees.

The ordinance approved by the Heath City Council, which allows for fines and jail time for people found sleeping on public property, is virtually the same as one approved on Oct. 21 by the Newark City Council, which heard protests from a packed house each time the ordinance was discussed.

The concerns raised repeatedly in Newark were that the ordinance would criminalize unsheltered people who have no money to pay fines and whose lives would be further damaged by a criminal record.

In Heath on Tuesday night, no one from the public spoke to the council about the camping ban or any other topic. But some council members said after the vote that their goal is not to criminalize homeless people but to help them.

Several of them said they were comfortable voting for the camping ban because the entire council attended the council safety committee’s meeting at 5:30 p.m. before the full council meeting at 7 p.m. and heard a detailed presentation by Assistant Newark City Law Director Melanie Timmerman, who did not speak during the full council meeting.

Adam Porter, the Ward 1 council member and head of the safety committee, said Timmerman spoke about a “HOME” court being created in Licking County Municipal Court to handle the cases of anyone who is picked up by police under the ordinances.

Porter said the name of the court stands for Housing Opportunities and Municipal Engagement Court. He was quick to add that neither Newark nor Heath police will enforce the new ordinances until the special court is activated. 

Council member Deb Cole said that when Newark considered the same ordinance, “there were a lot of negative thoughts” because people “didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes” to create a new court to specifically handle cases involving unsheltered people.

The court was never mentioned while Newark City Council was preparing to vote on the ordinance, and details about the court didn’t become public until Heath Mayor Mark Johns posted a memo on the city’s Facebook page on Feb. 3 saying that he had been briefed on plans for the court, and that is what prompted him to support the ordinance making it a crime to sleep on public property.

Johns said after the Feb. 18 vote that “there is still work to be done, but I was particularly pleased with the number of organizations and agencies that are coming forward” to be part of the support system that will work with unsheltered people through the new court.

Council member Jim Roberts said the ordinance gave him pause until he heard Timmerman’s presentation and the goal of helping people rather than putting unsheltered people behind bars.

The ordinance, which does not mention the HOME Court, will make sleeping on public property a minor misdemeanor, punishable by a $150 fine. A second offense would be a fourth-degree misdemeanor punishable by 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $250, and a third offense would be a third-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. The maximum total fine would be $500 for a series of violations.

“In no way would I want to do what it looked like – putting homeless people in prison,” he said. “It’s one of those things you want to understand before you vote.”

Ward 3 Councilman Paul Moretti said, “This ordinance needed to be passed to give our police department some kind of teeth behind it to say, ‘You’re gonna be charged, and we’re gonna take you over to this homeless court.’

Council President Tim Keller said, “It’s similar to getting a traffic ticket. It says, ‘Come to this court and then they can give you help, depending on your circumstances. It sounds like a win-win, but I will be curious to see when it is enacted.”

Ward 2 Councilman Shawn Gallant said he “engaged with a lot of community members in Heath – different agencies, obviously our law enforcement division. Almost every single person I talked to was in support of it. As you start to understand the process, and some of the opportunities that it might provide to folks that we anticipate, it just felt like the right thing to do.

“You have to look at it two ways: There is the optics that people see, and then, I think, there is the understanding of the struggles that sometimes folks may have with having access to resources and a path forward to get them out of the situation that they are in, provided that they want that path forward,” Gallant said.

Porter said that Timmerman told the council during the safety committee meeting that the plan is for the HOME Court to meet on Wednesdays at 11 a.m., when representatives of social service organizations, homeless shelters, churches and governmental support agencies would be on hand.

And rather than assign a probation officer to someone cited into court under the ordinances, the defendants would be assigned case workers, who would help guide them toward programs and agencies that can help them “get back on their feet.”

One of the goals of the coalition of organizations working to support the new court, he said, is to create a “low-barrier” shelter that would take in unsheltered people with few conditions – accepting people who have pets or might be using drugs or alcohol. There is no such shelter in Licking County currently.

Porter said that Timmerman also told the council that the court and its coalition of support organizations would work to identify short- and long-term housing for people who complete the court’s program.

The so-called “diversion” program would also allow someone charged with a crime under the ordinance to leave without a criminal record if they fulfill the court’s requirements.

And if they aren’t successful in 60 to 100 days, as prescribed by a judge, a person making progress “but isn’t there yet, they stay in the program,” Porter said.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday night, it was cozy inside the Licking County Warming Center at Holy Trinity Lutheran on West Main Street in Newark. 

Volunteers served up a dinner of barbecue sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and chocolate cookies, provided by Licking Memorial Hospital. At 7 p.m., The Dirigibles, a bass and guitar duo, played music for the more than 40 guests. 

In the half-light of the sanctuary, a space reserved for families with children, the Rev. Deb Dingus, pastor of the church, told The Reporting Project that she is concerned about how the ordinances in Newark and Heath will affect a vulnerable group of people. 

The city councils “feel this is what they need to do to keep people safe, however, it’s causing a lot of hardship for the unsheltered folks who are hiding and needing to find safe and secure places to be at night,” she said.

Guests have told her they are nervous to enter Newark because of the ordinance passed there. People are moving farther and farther out of the city limits, deeper into the woods, to avoid the possibility of being arrested.

Dingus said they “feel an extra added layer of desperation and hopelessness. Most of the folks who are coming here want to have a place to live – want to have housing.

“There’s no room at the other shelters,” she said, referring to the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul shelters in Newark. “That’s why we’ve had three families with kids here. There’s no room.”

A persistent rumor that unsheltered people are being “bussed in” to Newark and Heath is false

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Jan. 23, 2025

For decades, some major U.S. cities have “bussed out” unsheltered residents, handing people bus tickets to get out of town, out of sight, out of mind. 

Over the last year, unsubstantiated rumors that unhoused people were bussed from other cities to Licking County cities such as Heath and Newark have spread on social media and at Newark City Hall during some city council meetings.

The rumors persist, in part, because public officials and some community leaders continue to spread them without evidence.

Statements and data from Licking County volunteer and nonprofit organizations, local police departments, neighborhood associations and an investigation by The Reporting Project indicate the rumors are false: Unhoused people living in Licking County are from Licking County. 

Of the 33 people at Newark Homeless Outreach who spoke with The Reporting Project on Saturday, Dec. 7, for example, 30 were from Newark or had lived in Newark for a significant period of time prior to becoming homeless. Two said they were from Marietta, Ohio, and one said he was from North Carolina and had moved to Newark recently, but he declined to give further information.

Coinciding with these numbers are the accounts of unhoused people and volunteers with their feet on the street every day.

“People say they are bussed in, but there is no evidence of that,” said Patricia Perry, co-founder of the Newark Homeless Outreach. “It’s easier to blame other people than it is to take a look at yourself here in Licking County, or especially in Newark, and know that this is a problem and you’re not doing anything to help.”

Perry’s thoughts are also shared by some unhoused people. 

“I think most of it is based on rumors, not so much on action,” said Charlie Green, 66, an unhoused man from Newark. “I’m not proud of where I’m at, but I’m proud to be in Newark.”

In 2024, an estimated 176 people in Licking County were homeless on any given night, according to data from the latest Point-in-Time count, a census of unsheltered people collected on one night in January each year. That’s a 52% jump from 2023, when estimates showed about 116 people were homeless. The next Point-in-Time count in Licking County is slated to happen on Tuesday, Jan. 28. 

But the numbers fluctuate on any given night as some individuals gain – or lose – housing. 

“Homelessness numbers are very fluid,” Julie Magar, chief clinical officer at Behavioral Health Partners of Central Ohio (BHP) said in April, when The Reporting Project first began investigating where unsheltered people came from in Licking County. “An individual may report experiencing homelessness at admission and may get housed while being served by BHP, or they may have housing and then lose it. There really is not a way to track the number of clients who are experiencing homelessness on any given day.”

BHP is a local nonprofit that provides mental health and addiction services in Licking and Knox counties.  

Despite those difficulties, BHP has the numbers for those who were unhoused upon admission to their facilities. Between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, the organization said that 234 admitted individuals were unhoused. One was from Franklin County, another was from Richland County, 102 were from Knox County – all served by BHP providers in Knox County – and 130 were from Licking County. Two of 234 people were from outside the facilities’ counties, or roughly 0.9%.

According to Kathryn St. James, the CEO and president of BHP, the nonprofit served 3,372 people in Licking County in 2023, and 98% – or 3,305 people – were from Licking County.

In Licking County, people seeking care at BHP were overwhelmingly from Licking County. 

“We may see a few people who come to the outreach [out of hundreds who come] that are from out of the county,” said Linda Mossholder, South Newark Civic Association member and Newark Homeless Outreach volunteer. “If any are from out of county or maybe another state, it’s because they came here for a reason. They are not being bussed in.”

Even so, the rumor that unsheltered people are filing into Licking County persists – in part, some say without evidence, because of support services provided by places like BHP, the Newark Homeless Outreach, and the local Salvation Army. 

Newark City Council member Beth Bline is among the officials who have repeatedly asserted claims that unhoused people were being sent or brought here. 

“I understand the numbers, but I can’t change the narrative of someone’s personal testimony: What they tell me is what they tell me,” Bline, from Newark’s second ward covering the south side, told The Reporting Project last May. “Financial clarity is important, especially as many nonprofits are tax-exempt and people donate to them. It’s important for citizens to know how donated dollars are being spent.”

Bline, who has served on the Newark City Council since 2022, has provided The Reporting Project with no verifiable evidence to support her repeated claims, which she reiterated in January 2025. 

“It’s the nature of non-profits to gain income through numbers,” Bline said. “Obviously, if you have low numbers, you receive low tax dollars from the state; high numbers, you receive more money.”

One way to check this is with data from Licking County social service organizations, which often help unhoused populations.

Nonprofits are required by law to provide public records of their finances, but Bline remains skeptical. 

When asked, Bline said that she had not looked at the tax dollars that specific nonprofits in Licking County were receiving, and she said she does not have any proof of misuse but is researching the matter to be sure.

Bline continued, asserting that multiple sources have contacted her about unhoused people being bussed into Licking County.

“I have been contacted by citizens that said they’ve witnessed people being brought in and dropped at places like Walmart,” Bline said. “I’ve received phone calls from professionals, one professional in particular, saying that they were just brought in a group. Most importantly, I’ve received testimony from persons themselves.”

Bline would not provide names of the people she said told her these things, but emphasized that her source was “very frustrated.”

But local law enforcement agencies said these claims are not true. 

“Nobody’s been dropped off in Heath,” said Sgt. Ryan Peterson of the Heath Police Department. “I’ve heard rumors, but I’ve seen no evidence for it.” 

Newark Police said the same thing.

“To our knowledge, we’ve not heard that, or anything remotely similar,“ said Sgt. Chuck Wilhelm of the Newark Police Department. “I really don’t think that’s happening.”

Refusing to disclose the identity of the professional who contacted her, Bline continued to speak about one group in particular who she said told her they had been released from prison and instructed to make their way to Newark.

“That’s their testimony to me,” Bline said. “I’m going to believe them; I don’t have any reason not to.” 

Data and statements from service providers like BHP and the Salvation Army in Licking County, however, show that people coming to Newark specifically to access services is extremely rare.

“That’s not happening,” said Salvation Army Newark Corps Maj. Connie Higgins. “No one’s being bussed in here – we only serve Licking County residents.”

The idea that unhoused people are pushed into towns and cities from other areas has been perpetuated for decades, and there is some truth to it elsewhere in the United States. Across the country, major cities such as New York City and Atlanta implemented relocation programs for unsheltered individuals, offering bus and plane tickets for people to go elsewhere, according to a 2017 investigation by The Guardian. 

The Guardian investigation, which relied on public records requests from 16 cities and counties – primarily along the West Coast – identified more than 20,000 instances between 2011 and 2016 in which someone was handed a bus or plane ticket to go stay with family living elsewhere. 

There’s a history of this. Notably, for the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles and the 1996 games in Atlanta, unsheltered people were displaced. In Los Angeles, aggressive police sweeps and city ordinances banning public sleeping forced people out of the city. In Atlanta, thousands of arrests were made, and many unsheltered people were given bus tickets. 

There are about 653,000 unhoused people in the U.S. on any given night, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, so while this practice might be occurring, it is occurring infrequently, and there is no evidence to support that it has happened in Licking County. 

Community volunteers in Licking County have witnessed the same reality here.

Existing services such as Newark Homeless Outreach, the Licking County Emergency Warming Shelter, and Saint Vincent Haven, which see frequent use, are volunteer-run, and not operated by the City of Newark or Licking County government.

Licking County does not have a low-barrier shelter, meaning every available shelter in the county has obstacles that decrease their accessibility for some people. These often include drug tests, criminal background checks and even pet restrictions. 

Mossholder sees the claims that homeless people are coming from out of the county as a defense designed to shift blame.

“They don’t want to admit that there are homeless in our area,” Mossholder said to The Reporting Project in 2024. “It’s easier to blame that they’re coming from outside than [to acknowledge] people becoming homeless in Newark.”

Emergency warming shelter sees strong support in early December opening

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Dec. 6, 2024

The Licking Warming Center Task Force pulled together enough volunteers this week to open two nights in a row and keep the people of Licking County out of the cold.

On Wednesday, Dec. 4 and Thursday, Dec. 5 the Licking County Emergency Warming Center at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Newark, opened on very short notice, with 24 total volunteers working to help dozens of people avoid a freezing night outside.

“We had 26 the first night. We had seven who did not return but an additional eight [came], so we had 27 last night,” said Jeff Gill, a member of the Licking County Warming Center Task Force.

This included an estimated four people over the age of 70, two people in wheelchairs, and one dog. Gill said that there is a noticeable increase in senior citizens coming to the emergency shelter. 

“It’s not what a lot of people expect, which is a whole bunch of middle aged guys living in tents by the river who come to our place when it gets cold,” Gill said. “It is a mix of people who are waiting for the next retirement check, people caught between apartments, families, couples. It runs the gamut.”

To increase accessibility, the warming center has no barriers to entry, meaning those with pets and those using substances are welcome — atypical for shelters in Licking County. 

“We’re saving people from freezing to death,” Nancy Welu, the volunteer coordinator of the Licking County Emergency Warming Center Task Force, said in March this year.

“You’re going to be warm,” she said. “You’re going to be treated with respect. You’re going to have a full belly.”

The decision to open is not an arbitrary one. Between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Gill and Licking County Emergency Management Agency Director Sean Grady watched the weather and ultimately made the call to open the shelter. 

Normally, the shelter opens once the weather drops to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, but the windchill that night was set to bounce between 5 and -5 degrees. By 5:30 p.m., the center was up and running with a skeleton crew of 18, and as the night went on six more volunteers arrived to fill out the operation.

Bringing this shelter together is no small feat. Gill said that it takes at least 18 volunteers to open the doors.

And all of those boots on the ground are necessary. There is food prep, intake, late night and overnight supervision, checkout and cleanup shifts, all of which need at least three volunteers. 

There was no shortage of volunteers this week.

Luellen Deeds, volunteer coordinator with United Way, said this was the first time United Way has coordinated volunteers for the warming shelter. 

Deeds said they were overwhelmed by the response, with over 40 people responding within hours of putting out the call for volunteers. They continued to get inquiries about volunteering and hope that folks will step up again when it gets cold in January and February. 

“I think people saw a need,” she said. “They felt the cold – I know I did. I can’t imagine being out in that.”

“It’s just amazing,” Deeds added. “It just warms the heart.”

The Licking County Warming Center Task Force is comprised of representatives from Licking County Health Department, the Licking County Emergency Management Agency, Red Cross, Salvation Army, Pathways of Central Ohio/211, Newark Homeless Outreach, Licking County Humane Society, Licking County Coalition for Housing, Licking Memorial Health Systems, United Way of Licking County, the Faith-Based Community, and the Licking County Foundation.

Community organizations honor veterans buried in Pataskala Cemetery in cleanup event

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Nov. 11, 2024

A toothbrush might not clean floors or toilets well, but it does a bang-up job cleaning headstones. 

On Saturday, Nov. 9, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Boy Scout Troop 21 and Girl Scout Troop 7520 hosted a headstone cleaning demonstration at the Pataskala Cemetery. Other members of the public were encouraged to join, and the event drew about two dozen people.

Mike Dalton, a retired on-scene coordinator with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, demonstrated the process, which is done using gloves, a non-metal scrub brush, water, D/2 Biological Solution and tiny tools.

Wooden paint stir sticks and tongue suppressors are also common, as they can be used to scrape significant biological growth like moss from the smaller lines of engraved lettering. 

“We’re going to start with just plain water and a scraper,” Dalton said. “Just get it wet, and then what we’re going to do is just scrape it [moss] off. These scrapers are soft and flexible, so they can’t damage the stone. We also have popsicle sticks. And they can get in where there’s engraving some places where you can’t get with the scrapers like this. It seems to scoop stuff out.”

Dalton continued to wet the headstone with water through his demonstration, pausing to scrape moss and other biological growth from the stone.

“This is an especially bad one,” Dalton said. “Once we scrape all the sides of the stone and the base then we’re going to take a brush and we’re going to start scrubbing.”

Dalton firmly but gently ran the soft brush over the stone, loosening the extensive growths that time had allowed upon the rocks surface, explaining the need to use a soft brush and gentler tools.

“Marble, limestone, some of the other stones around here are actually pretty soft,” said Dalton. “So if we did this with, like, a wire brush, we could do 100 years worth of damage.”

For headstones created to last hundreds of years without eroding, that kind of damage is no joke. But regardless of unnatural damage, biological growth can also accelerate the erosion of marble and limestone.

Once the stone was as clean as possible with only water and scrapers, the next step was spraying the entirety of the headstone with the D/2 biological solution, and waiting 10 to 15 minutes for it to work its way into the moss and algae and end their infiltration.

Dalton explained that after the D/2 cleaner has been applied, the stone can either be left alone for the cleaner to work over the next couple of months or it can be scrubbed and cleaned manually, though much of the shining and clearing effect will still take place over a longer period. 

“The D/2 not only kills the algae that’s there, it prevents it from growing,” said Dalton.

After the presentation, Dalton sent attendees off to clean the headstones with American flags next to them to signify military service.

Many were grateful for the opportunity to do such meaningful work ahead of Veterans Day on Monday, Nov. 11, including the scouts. 

“I really enjoy it,” said 13-year-old Troop 21 member Seth Pingel of Etna. “This is where people are buried. And even just the fact that maybe the families don’t know how to do it, I feel like it’s something really important and a really amazing experience.”

This sentiment echoed across all ages.

“It’s really satisfying to see the results especially when some of the smaller writing, you couldn’t read it at all before, and now it pops out and somebody can actually enjoy it again,” said 43-year-old Jill Brewer of Pataskala, mother to a Troop 21 scout.

Josh John and his daughter Brooklyn came out for the event, as John saw it as a good learning opportunity.

“I’m a member of the American Legion here in Pataskala, so we’ve known about this for a while,” said John. “ I think the children today don’t have as much knowledge or influence, in my opinion, and need to preserve the dedication that we have to this country and the commitment we have to veterans, specifically on days like [Veterans] Day.”

Other young adults came out to show their admiration for the artistry involved in the headstones and bolster the community.

“I have always been interested in it,” said 23-year-old Allison Peck of New Albany. “I think that it’s important to go and show love and care for things that have been forgotten. And I also think that the artistry of the stones is so beautiful. And more people should try and appreciate that.”

The process of cleaning is not just important for grave maintenance and the preservation of beautiful stone art — it is also necessary for historical discovery. It can uncover figures in American history, and reveal deep-rooted community stories.

Dalton showed off one such example with Tommy Allsup, whose stone proclaimed him 98 years old and initially born an enslaved man.

“What’s interesting is this is a monument to him,” said Dalton. “His grave is actually over there, and there’s a headstone on the grave.”

Allsup’s monument was only about ten feet away from his actual headstone, but it painted a clear picture that would not have been clear otherwise. Allsup was an important man in the community and an important part of Pataskala’s history.

Incumbent Republican state Rep. Kevin Miller wins Ohio District 69

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Nov. 5, 2024

Incumbent Republican Representative Kevin Miller will maintain his seat in Ohio House District 69 – which encompasses parts of Licking, Fairfield and Perry counties – according to preliminary results from the Ohio Board of Elections.

Early results from the Associated Press show Miller earned 76.8% of the vote in Licking, Perry and Fairfield Counties. Miller ran against Democrat and political newcomer Jamie Hough, who received 23.2% of the vote. Miller did not respond to The Reporting Project’s request for comment immediately following the release of election results.

Miller initially took office in the 72nd District in June 2021, replacing Rep. Larry Householder, the former House Speaker ousted following a bribery and corruption scandal as well as federal RICO charges. The Ohio Redistricting Commission adopted new maps for house districts after the 2022 election, and Miller became the representative for the 69th district in January 2023. 

Throughout his tenure, Miller said he has prioritized legislation that supports and protects law enforcement. Miller also co-sponsored myriad legislation, from a bill requiring schools to have sports teams for both boys and girls, as well as a bill that eliminates the spousal exception for sex crimes.

Hough described himself as “pro-family, pro-choice, pro-equality,” and said he ran to provide a voice for all Licking Countians. Hough said his priorities, had he won the race, would have been to invest money back into the county’s public schools, while ensuring quality health care, access to affordable housing and environmental protections. 

Hough, who watched the election results from a Licking County Democratic Party event at West Church Social in Newark, shared he was excited to see democracy at work. Hough was pleased with the amount of young voters.

“I know we’ve tried everything we can. I wish we could’ve hit a few more houses in the rural areas. This is my first race. You have to be optimistic,” Hough said.

Yet after the preliminary election results were released Hough was disappointed, despite his original optimistic mindset.

“I’m disappointed and discouraged in Ohio. I fear for our future but we are gonna continue to fight,” Hough told The Reporting Project after preliminary election results were released. 

Hough felt confident in his campaign and said it is likely he will run again.

“I wouldn’t do anything differently, maybe show up to a few more football games, maybe show up to a few more city council meetings. Honestly, I don’t know if that would have helped me that much,” Hough said. 

To his supporters, Hough is appreciative.

“This whole campaign has been about them, it’s never been about me. We aren’t done fighting,” Hough said. 

Incumbent Duane Flowers wins reelection for Licking County Commissioner

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Nov. 5, 2024

Incumbent Duane Flowers will hold on to his seat as a Licking County Commissioner for a fourth term, defeating Granville Township Trustee Bryn Bird in the Nov. 5 election, according to preliminary results from the Licking County Board of Elections.

In a pre-election interview, Flowers told The Reporting Project, “We still have projects that aren’t done, and I want to see them finished up and see them through.”

Flowers will now get his chance to do so, earning 65.3% of the vote, according to preliminary results from the BOE.

“It’s going about how I expected,” Flowers told The Reporting Project shortly before final vote totals were released late Tuesday night. “If you look at all the republican candidates that are going against democratic candidates, the percentages are all about the same. … We’ve worked hard, as we all have. I mean, this is not an easy thing to do. If you want to serve, it’s part of the job.”

Over the next four-year term, Flowers, 72, plans to pick up where he left off. In an interview with TRP reporter Andrew Theophilus, Flowers said, “We’ve got a lot of road issues we’re trying to get cleaned up and fixed up. Especially around the Johnstown, St Albans, Monroe township areas, so we can get the people who live in those areas — they don’t deserve all that truck traffic and congestion. We need to make sure we get them some safe and clean roads up there. That’s going to be probably number one. Number two is to start first of the year getting the comprehensive plan done for the county.”

Service is something that Flowers sees as being in his blood: his family has served in the U.S. armed forces since the Revolutionary War, and he served during the Vietnam War. Flowers was born and raised in central Ohio, and was first elected to public office in 1999, when he was elected to be the mayor in Hanover.

Flowers pitched himself to voters this election as an “America-First Conservative Republican,” while his opponent, 40-year-old Bird, said she believes political ideology does not belong in the conversation about what’s best for the people of Licking County. 

Flowers claims that it is yet to be seen if he will run again. 

“I will never know that until I guess that time comes. As long as my health holds out and I feel like I’m able to serve and give and I’ll continue on,” said Flowers.

Flowers had this to say about his opponent, “I appreciate my opponent and her civil way of being an opponent. I look forward to it being over with, so we can all go on with our lives.”

Bird has been a Granville Township Trustee for seven years, and is a lifelong resident of Licking County. 

When asked how she was feeling Bird responded at 9:58 p.m., saying: “Very proud of the race I ran. Disappointed it doesn’t look like a win but I am very hopeful as a citizen and township trustee that the commissioners truly begin to put in place strong plans for our county’s future. I will continue to work as a trustee for the citizens of Granville and advocate for more resources for townships.”

Bird believes that Licking Counties long history of republican county commissioners set a trend that continued through this election.

“Especially during a presidential race we have a strong history of a very strong, Republican voting block, it seems that people still just kind of voted down the ballot for one party,” said Bird.

At 10:02 p.m. Bird told The Reporting Project that although many republican leaders in the community have told her to run again in two years, she does not plan to unless they officially endorse her before beginning a campaign. While she is disappointed at the lack of comprehensive community planning, particularly as it concerns natural resources, Bird remains committed to the community.

“For now I’m going to keep deserving Granville Township and the residents of the Granville community and advocate on our behalf for the resources that we need to best plan for our future and to protect our natural resources in light of not having an overall community comprehensive plan.”

Bird would also like to thank her supporters for all their time and resources. 

“The work doesn’t stop and I’ll keep working to build community,” said Bird.

Bird called her opponent Flowers to congratulate him, and hopes to get coffee with him soon to discuss working together to address concerns around the county.

Flowers reported nearly $26,000 in financial contributions between the March primary and the November general election, including $2,500 from Fairfield County Commissioner David Levacy, $2,500 from Grant Douglas of Columbus, $100 from Board of Elections Director Brian Mead,  $100 from Newark Mayor Jeff Hall, and $100 from Court of Common Pleas candidate Matt Kunsman. 

Flowers also received $500 from the Realtors Political Action Committee in Columbus and $500 from Ohio House candidate Kevin Miller, according to campaign finance reports filed with the elections board. 

Bird reported approximately $1,750 in monetary contributions in April – the latest campaign finance report available from the board of elections – including $1,000 from The Matriots Political Action Committee, a nonpartisan, Ohio-based group that supports women candidates. 

Newark City Council approves ordinance targeting homeless people in 7-1 vote for ‘camping ban’

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Oct. 22, 2024

Homeless people and others found sleeping on public benches, sidewalks, streets and alleyways – or in a doorway to a public or private property abutting a public sidewalk – could face criminal charges under an ordinance approved Monday night by the Newark City Council.

The legislation, formally known as Ordinance 24-36, will officially take effect 30 days after the near-unanimous vote that occurred during the Oct. 21 city council meeting. 

A first offense under the ordinance that refers to “prohibited camping” would be considered a minor misdemeanor, and anyone found guilty could be sentenced to a fine of up to $150. 

Any subsequent violations – including a second or third time found sleeping on a bench or in a doorway – would be considered fourth-degree misdemeanors punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $250 for each offense.

The vote comes after three prior contentious meetings: The first, on Sept. 4, brought nearly 100 people to council chambers to oppose the legislation during a safety committee meeting; The safety committee opted to send the legislation to the full council during the second meeting on Sept. 26; the third meeting, on Oct. 7, was the first time the ordinance was read to full council. 

Each saw myriad public members coming out to voice their opinions, and Monday’s meeting was no different. Dozens of people gathered at the Newark Municipal Building. There was a tangible stress in the air, like the room was collectively clenching its teeth.

At Monday’s meeting, 23 members of the public offer testimony about the ordinance, with 19 of those people speaking in opposition to it. Public comment on the legislation was limited to two minutes per speaker — atypical for Newark City Council meetings, where public commenters are usually granted three minutes. 

“It’s going to be an embarrassment to the city council. Mayor, it’s going to be an embarrassment to you, because you’re the leader,” said John LaBelle, president of St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Leonard’s Church in Heath. “This is cruel. It’s not healthy for the community. It’s not healthy for the city.”

Deb Dingus, executive director of the United Way of Licking County, invited those attending the council meeting to a community discussion about homelessness and housing at 6 p.m. on Oct. 29 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel at 50 N. Second Street in Newark, and said she’s convinced the community can find a creative solution.

A few people in attendance at the meeting spoke in favor of the ordinance, citing public safety concerns and trash accumulation at encampments. Although the vast majority of public comments throughout the ordinance review process opposed the legislation, Newark City Council members said they received “countless” calls in support of the bill. 

At-large Council Member Bill Cost Jr. was the lone voice on council who spoke against the ordinance, while councilmembers Michael Houser, Beth Bline, Mark Labutis, Spencer Barker and Doug Marmie voiced support for the ordinance before and after the vote, calling it “another tool in the toolbox” for law enforcement officers.

Barker, appointed to Newark City Council in September, told attendees that “this vote is not one that any of us take lightly,” while Marmie pointed to historically controversial legislation that generated significant pushback that the council dealt with in the past, including ordinances related to property maintenance and a smoking ban. 

“In my tenure, there’s been two other topics that [generated similar levels of public discussion],” Marmie added. “Both of them have fared pretty well since then, even though it was heavily debated.” 

Of the ten council members, Cost was the only one to vote in opposition of the legislation, while Houser, Bline, Jeff Rath, Labutis, Barker, Marmie and Colton Rine voted in favor of it. At-large Council members Bradley Chute and Dustin Neely were absent from the meeting, though voiced support for the ordinance during the Oct. 7 session. 

“I’ve been against the whole thing from day one,” Cost said following the vote. “I don’t think jail is the correct solution and I’m hoping we can work toward finding better solutions with the non-profits and social services we have in this town. I’m hoping they can work together and we can find a better way of doing things. My next step will be at that meeting on the 29th.”

Tricia Moore, the city’s law director, agrees with Cost that jail time is not a solution to homelessness in Newark, and acknowledges the situation’s complexity.

“My goal is not convictions, my goal is services,” said Moore. “I want there not to be anybody for me to prosecute. Convictions don’t help.”

The public had a wide array of reactions to the verdict.

“They’re just opening us up for lawsuits,” said Newark resident David Trubee Jr. “And who’s going to float the bill? It’d be us taxpayers floating the bill. I’d like to see every one of them, all the way up to the Mayor, resign. They work for us, we don’t work for them.”

Brandon Myers — who owns and operates Real Rescue Tree Experts, a company that manages environmental hazards and also hosts a ministry that targets social issues like substance abuse, homelessness and child trafficking, according to the organization’s website — is glad the council passed the ordinance, but says it needs to be handled with care. 

“The last thing we need is another law that nobody is going to enforce,” Myers said. “The community is over [public camping]. 

Myers wasn’t alone in his support. 

“I wanted them to adopt the legislation,” said former Clerk of Council Janine Paul of Newark. “It’s about the safety of the citizens in the city. I understand there’s a homeless issue and there’s things that need to be done about that, but the rest of the citizens of the city need to feel safe too.”

Other Newark leadership weighed in after the ruling as well. Newark Mayor Jeff Hall expressed his initial approval and subsequent hopes for the ordinance. Hall also shared that he does not see this legislation as a response to homelessness.

“I saw its worthiness,” said Newark Mayor Jeff Hall. “I think truly there was a lot of confusion as to what it was and wasn’t. The last thing we want to do is what someone accused the city of going to do, which is arrest everyone who is homeless. You can take the homeless piece clear out of it, that isn’t really what it’s about.”

Bline spoke to The Reporting Project after voting in favor of the ordinance, citing the number of worried citizens who had spoken to her privately about fearing for their well-being and personal safety around  unhoused people.

“I met with people in their driveways, I met with them in their living rooms, and no one likes this problem at all, but at the same time, they have to be safe,” said Bline. “This is not a solution [to homelessness]. This [ordinance] is security and safety.

“To Councilman Marmie’s comment that presently, if someone wants to camp on the grassy space between the street and your house, they can and nothing will happen,” Bline continued, citing non-descript cases where tents were pitched in the Devil Strip between someone’s yard and the road in Newark. 

Bline said the ordinance will be a boon for safety forces, including local police and fire departments, but also said more work needs to be done to address homelessness in the city. 

Moore agreed with Bline’s sentiment, noting the work that still needs to be done before the ordinance goes into law in 30 days time. 

“In the meantime, myself and the judge that will hopefully be running this docket will sit down and make a list of service providers that we want to be part of the docket we’re trying to run,” said Moore. “[We will] have them come to the table and explain what our vision is and see what services they can bring to the table.”

A U.S. Supreme Court decision issued on June 28 allows cities to make it illegal to sleep or camp on public property, and that ruling gave a green light to cities across the country to approve such ordinances.

With the adoption of this ordinance, Newark joins New Philadelphia, in Tuscarawas County, and Mentor, in Lake County, as Ohio cities that have voted to make sleeping in public a crime – what some Newark meeting attendees called “possession of a pillow with intent to sleep.” 

The June Supreme Court ruling allows cities to make it illegal to sleep or camp on public property. The case originated in Grants Pass, a city of about 38,000 people in southwestern Oregon – a city where about 600 people are homeless on any given day, and where the city was challenged in court for passing a law to make it illegal to camp or sleep on public property.

Advocates for homeless people filed a lawsuit against the city challenging the law and eventually lost that fight in the Supreme Court.

“Johnson v. Grants Pass is a court case originally filed in 2018 that determined it is cruel and unusual punishment to arrest or ticket people for sleeping outside when they have no other safe place to go,” says the National Homelessness Law Center on its website about the case. “The case started in Grants Pass, Oregon, when the city began issuing tickets to people sleeping in public, even when there were not enough safe, accessible shelter beds.

“Grants Pass, like many cities in America, is thousands of housing units short of what is needed,” says the law center, based in Washington, D.C., which defended homeless people in the Supreme Court case. “That shortfall will not be solved by putting more people in jail or issuing more tickets. The solution to homelessness is safe, decent, and affordable housing for everybody.”

Meet the candidate: Granville Trustee Bryn Bird is ready to reach across the political aisle as a Licking County Commissioner

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Oct. 18, 2024

Granville Township Trustee Bryn Bird has always sought to take care of others before herself – just as her parents taught her while growing up in McKean Township in Licking County. Her cows came first.   

“I have pictures of me with my hair done and makeup on, ready to go to my senior prom, but I still had to put a plastic bag over my head and go out and feed my cows before I could go to prom,” Bird said. “We had to take care of our animals before we took care of ourselves.”

Her growing family and her family’s farm, which she co-owns, came next. 

Then, it was her community. 

The 40-year-old Licking County native has been a township trustee for seven years and remains co-owner of Bird’s Haven Farms. And this year, she is running as a Democrat in the Licking County Commissioner race against incumbent Republican Duane Flowers, who was first elected in 2012.

And if Bird wins, she’ll be the first Democrat among the county commissioners in 20 years.

“I’ve always been told ‘you’d be a great commissioner, but you can’t because you’re a Democrat,’” Bird told The Reporting Project. “I really believe that partisan politics hurts communities and that partisan politics doesn’t really have a place as a county commissioner.”

Bird’s first brush with public life came while participating in the extemporaneous category in Future Farmers of America’s agricultural speaking contest. Bird, who graduated from Northridge High School in 2002, participated in the school’s FFA chapter and grew up showing animals at the Hartford Fair. 

“I was on a stage in front of like 20,000 people. I mean, it was crazy in Louisville, Kentucky, and my speech was on genetically modified crops,” Bird said.

Looking back, Bird believes her late mother knew that she had found her calling.

“I found the speech a while ago,” Bird said. “I was going through some of my mom’s stuff and it made me cry because she was freaked out when I won.”

Following her passion at home on the farm, and participating in FFA, Bird went to Miami University in Ohio for zoology. While attending the university, she spent a semester at sea, cruising from port to port and city to city.  

Amid her globe-trotting, Bird has never lost her pride or faith in Licking County.

“I’ve never lost that, in the curiosity of the world, that Licking County is an incredible place,” Bird said. “But we are a small place, you know, in the vastness of the world.”

During her junior year, Bird took an internship with the American Public Health Association in Washington, D.C., where she quickly informed her colleagues where they would see her next.

“I told everybody I was going to be the Surgeon General, and one day my boss said, ‘Why don’t you email the Surgeon General and ask him how he did it,’” Bird said. “I was like, ‘yeah, why don’t I?’ So I did. And he responded.”

The Surgeon General at the time was Richard Carmona. After discussing her aspirations, Carmona gave Bird a new perspective on her goals. 

“He said, ‘I really think you don’t want to be a doctor. I think you want to do public health and the study around health sciences.’”

She applied to George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, and earned her graduate degree in occupational and environmental public health with a focus on epidemiology. 

In 2008, Bird married Brian Walsh – who she met through roommates while Walsh attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland – and the couple relocated to Norfolk, Virginia, where they lived until Bird’s mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2012. 

Always one to embrace different viewpoints, Bird did not let their conflicting political opinions get in the way of enjoying each other’s company. 

“I was voting for Bush, and he was voting for Kerry,” Bird said. “We were getting in these huge fights, and our friends were like, ‘I don’t think you guys should date,’ but we just loved it.”

Their friends were wrong, and 20 years later, Bird and Walsh are happier than ever, lifting each other in their careers and their roles as parents to three daughters. Walsh has taken an active role in helping Bird’s Licking County Commissioner campaign.

“He took the day off work and he just texted me he’s put up 24 large signs. My husband is the number one supportive spouse in the entire world, and I surely could not do my township role or run for commissioner if I didn’t have a husband who was so supportive.”

Bird believes her unique knowledge from Capitol Hill and abroad and a lifetime spent living in Licking County gives her the right experience to tackle the distinctive needs of Licking County as it transforms and advances.

“Under this current climate of inflation, child-care costs, housing costs, knowing the pressures that I feel, I think often: how are other families surviving it?”

Her life as a parent has kept the issues faced by families at the forefront of her mind.

“Being a parent, for me, the biggest thing I think about is the pressures that so many people are under,” Bird said.

Showing where she stands with both red and blue campaign signs, Bird said she wants what’s best for the people in Licking County, and she believes that politics simply do not belong in that conversation. 

While serving as a Granville Township Trustee, Bird aided in efforts to relocate the Granville Fire Station to its current home on S. Main Street, led COVID-19 related safety measures, and worked on comprehensive planning for Granville. She also helped protect hundreds of acres of farmland through the Granville Open Space Program and fought for the creation of the joint economic development district with the Village of Granville. 

Her goals as commissioner, she said, are similar to what she’s accomplished as a township representative: to support the community as it grows and changes. That includes fully staffing county offices like the planning and engineering departments, as well as the county prosecutor to “better serve Licking County challenges and needs.” 

But Bird’s work isn’t limited to Granville. She was one of the founders of the Canal Market District Farmers Market in Newark – the first market to accept food assistance programs in Licking County – and has served on a variety of leadership boards throughout Licking, including Explore Licking County and the YMCA. 

“I don’t count just my township time is getting me ready for this,” Bird said. “I count the time at the Canal Market District, working with the City of Newark, with the nonprofits and with the other agencies to get that off the ground. I’ve been working in this community since I moved back in 2012. I’ve earned the respect from leadership on both sides and from all areas of the county.”

Meet the candidate: Incumbent Kevin Miller will continue to push for increased police protections if reelected to Ohio House

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Oct. 11, 2024

Family man and former lawman of over two decades Kevin Miller, 49, is running to maintain his seat in the Ohio House of Representatives, and he won’t let his incumbent status go to his head. 

This November, the Newark-based Republican state representative of District 69 — which encompasses parts of Licking, Fairfield and Perry counties — is facing off against Democrat Jamie Hough to maintain his seat.

Miller grew up in Swanton, Ohio where he lived with his three siblings: Brian, Kim and Christie. His mother was formerly a hairdresser, and his father was an automotive worker.   

Growing up with a big family quickly introduced Miller to work. Whether he was on his grandfather and neighbor Langenderfer farm hoeing beans, working at Toledo Trap and Skeet, crafting metal at Swanton Welding, or helping out at Sylvester farms, Miller was always in motion. 

This led Miller to The Ohio State University, where he studied environmental education, communication and interpretation. His goal was to work for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as a game warden, and he attended law enforcement training, obtaining the Ohio Peace Officer certification and National Park Service Ranger certification.

Upon graduation, though, Miller accepted a job with the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP), where he worked for 22 years in a variety of roles, including commander of the Granville Post and the legislative liaison for the OSHP.  Now in his role as a state representative, Miller wants to ensure that Ohio legislation gives law enforcement the proper support they need to do their jobs effectively. 

“I probably wouldn’t be where I’m at today if it weren’t for that [highway patrol],” said Miller. “One of my top priorities is basically being a [vocal] supporter of not only police, but also our other first responders. That’s really why I’m there.”

Miller was initially appointed to the Ohio House of Representatives in the 72nd district in 2021 after incumbent Rep. Larry Householder was ousted following a bribery and corruption scandal and receiving federal RICO charges.

Miller’s wife Megan encouraged him to interview for the position. 

“I was talking with my wife and she said…, ‘Well, why don’t you interview for it? We complain about everything, you’ve got a chance to do something to make a difference,’” Miller said. 

And that’s what Miller did, interviewing alongside 18 other candidates. 

“So I had to retire from highway patrol,” said Miller. “I raised my hand and they swore me in on the same day.”

Miller represented the 72nd District from June 2021 until December 2022. The Ohio Redistricting Commission adopted new maps for house districts after the 2022 election, and Miller became the representative for the 69th district in January 2023. 

He sees the role of law enforcement as fundamental and not political, clearly laid out in his proposed legislation House Bill 100.

“One of the big ones that I really like to see is House Bill 100 which is called the Chief Steven DiSario Act,” said Miller. “And it protects the ‘thin blue line’ flag. Now homeowners associations, condos, and associations cannot prevent the flying of the American flag, the Ohio flag, the Prisoner of War flag and the military flags.”

Steven DiSario had been the Kirkersville Police Chief for just three weeks when he was shot and killed while responding to a hostage situation in 2017. Five years later, his parents — Miller’s constituents — were told they could not fly the ‘thin blue line’ flag to honor their son at their home in Etna. The family was asked to remove the flag by the homeowner’s association, which did not sit right with Miller. 

“That is not a political statement,” said Miller. “It represents those that protect and serve us in our communities every day.”

Flying the thin blue line flag — a sign that typically shows support for law enforcement — is not considered protected speech, and remains controversial in the United States, where some police departments have banned the ‘thin blue line’ imagery. 

This interaction and proposed bill is indicative of Miller’s goals in the statehouse. He is grateful for the opportunities and values which the highway patrol brought into his life, and he wants to pay that respect forward onto current law enforcement and first responders. 

Miller acknowledged the complexity in the law enforcement field as well, and introduced House Bill 333 to the Ohio General Assembly. This bill would prohibit the formal and informal use of arrest quotas for police officers. Eliminating quotas creates a fairer system for officers and civilians where there are no incentives or performance boosters associated with overpolicing. 

With the upcoming election, Miller is confident and excited, but will not let that cloud his thinking.

I’m working hard,” said Miller. “I’ve got a lot of support, and I’m feeling good, but you never take anything for granted in this space. So you continue to work hard, and hopefully, your constituents see that you’re working hard and they support you.”

Newark will introduce controversial public camping ordinance to full council Oct. 7

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Oct. 7, 2024

On Monday, Oct. 7, the full Newark City Council will hear an ordinance that would create a misdemeanor charge for sleeping on public property for the first time. 

The proposed ordinance, known as Ordinance 24-36, was first heard in the council’s Safety Committee in early September. At the committee’s Sept. 16 session, council members voted to send the resolution to the full council. 

The proposal, if approved by council, would create fines and misdemeanor jail penalties for people found guilty of sleeping or camping on publicly owned land. 

The proposal has already spurred significant community response, with some Newark residents vehemently opposed and others in support of some kind of penalty for public camping. 

“This ordinance will not change the way we respond to those calls,” Newark Safety Director Tim Hickman told the safety committee on Sept. 16. “Our safety forces, police department, property maintenance, and fire department constantly respond to these types of calls. If we as a community expect them to respond to those calls, we need to give them the direction and authority to properly handle those situations.”

Newark City Council will convene at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 7, following committee meetings that begin at 5:45 p.m. 

Newark’s proposed public sleeping ordinance moved to full council; ordinance ignites public comment

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Sept. 18, 2024

The Safety Committee for the City of Newark, Ohio, has proposed misdemeanor charges against people sleeping outside on public property in Ordinance 24-36. The proposed ordinance has riled myriad citizens to speak both in support and against increasing the consequences of outdoor sleeping.

“Right here in this town, I’m gonna let it shine”

People sang along and swayed with their phones in the air, but they were not at a concert. They stood in the lobby of the Newark City Municipal Building, waiting from 5:50 p.m. to 6:09 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 16, for the Newark City Council’s executive session to end and the committee meetings to resume. 

Voices singing in harmony filled the first floor and soared to the mezzanine. Though the doors in front of the dozens of singers were closed, people were happy and hopeful, singing “Amazing Grace” and “This Little Light of Mine.” 

The crowd of about 100 came in response to continued discussion of Ordinance 24-36 — a proposal that would create fines and misdemeanor jail penalties for people found guilty of sleeping or camping on publicly owned land. 

The proposal initially discussed in front of a crowd of nearly 100 people on Tuesday, Sept. 3, brought an even bigger crowd during Monday’s committee meeting, with Newark residents voicing both support and opposition to the legislation. 

 So many wished to speak that the safety committee had to be tabled at 7 p.m. and resumed after the main council meeting.

How did we get here?

This proposed legislation, which the safety committee voted to move to the full council during Monday’s meeting for a reading on Oct. 7 and possible vote on Oct. 27,  follows the City of Grants Pass V. Johnson Supreme Court case from June 28 this year, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Oregon city’s right to penalize outdoor sleeping, even when the offenders had nowhere else to go.

Despite Columbus, the closest major city to Newark, committing to avoid increasing criminal penalties, the smaller city is seeking further consequences. Under the proposed ordinance, a first offense of “camping” on public property could result in a fine of up to $150, and subsequent offenses could result in fines of up to $250 and up to 30 days in jail.

After the public commented, At-large Council member Bill Cost Jr. spoke, acknowledging that people do not want to see unhoused people on public or private property, but that he was putting his foot down against the ordinance.

“I wouldn’t want them in my yard, you wouldn’t want them in your yard, I get that,” Cost said. “I’m still not comfortable with option three, because I don’t think jail solves the other two problems. I think we’re better, I think we’re bigger than that.”

Council member Michael Houser, who represents Newark’s first ward, spoke next, citing the responsibility that the city holds to its business owners and private citizens.

“I definitely do support this ordinance,” Houser said. “I know it’s not a perfect solution, I know it’s not a solution to a certain extent, in that there are a lot of other things that need to be done here, but I think that this is a tool we need to give to our safety forces to keep our community safe.”

Echoing Houser’s sentiments, council member Mark Labutis — representing Newark’s fourth ward, an older part of the city just west of downtown — spoke about the city of Newark’s ability to solve the homelessness and housing crisis. 

“While this solution is not perfect, we do have an intelligent, vibrant community, and we want to work together toward a solution,” Labutis said. “I feel like that might be able to happen.”

Council member Beth Bline followed. She represents the second ward, on the south side of Newark.

“The city does have a responsibility to keep its public places safe,” Bline said. “It’s not a solution for homeless[ness], and I hear the frustration in many voices, but it is a baseline in action. Because there is accountability involved in transformation.”

The following day, Bline expressed her admiration for all those who chose to attend the meeting and speak their minds.

“It’s great to see their response,” Bline said. “And honestly, there was as much online response as there was in person. So it was great to see people get involved and share their opinion.”

Some commenters raised concerns about trash left on their properties and safety issues at their homes, while others expressed consternation about the lack of recourse they have in dealing with unsheltered people in their neighborhood, on the bike path and in public areas. 

Brandon Myers — who owns and operates Real Rescue Tree Experts, a company that manages environmental hazards and also hosts a ministry that targets social issues like substance abuse, homelessness and child trafficking, according to the organization’s website — told the committee that he supported the ordinance because he lives in Newark and wants to help the community. 

“I have a stake in the ground in this county,” he told the committee. “If [this ordinance] will make change to where it will clean up our city, then it would be a positive thing.”

Myers told The Reporting Project that his support for the ordinance was complicated, in part because he supports fewer laws and a smaller government,  and in part because he worries that this could just be another law on the books that’s not enforced. 

“This is personal to me,” he explained. “My concern … is that I don’t feel we’re doing a [good] job of enforcing the laws that we have.” 

Some local unhoused residents gave their thoughts on the consequences of Ordinance 24-36 as well.

“A lot of us would go to jail,” said Marilyn Tapealava, an unhoused mother living in Newark. “There’s going to be a lot of children without their parents.” 

Public comments about the proposal stretched into the regular Newark City Council meeting, where Newark fifth-grader Jackson Hollis weighed in on the bill. 

Hollis, who was nervous about speaking in front of the council for the first time on Monday, said that just because one person who is unhoused steals something doesn’t mean all people who are unhoused do that. 

Every Wednesday, he told The Reporting Project, he volunteers with his grandmother to feed unhoused people in his community.

“Not everyone is bad,” he told the council. “You guys are stereotyping them to be bad people.”

When the safety committee reconvened after the council meeting on Monday, other commenters told the council about their own experiences with homelessness, substance use disorder and working with unsheltered people across Newark.  

“I get the privilege to help those on the streets with my church,” said Renee Smith. “There absolutely is a problem. … But I do know that a lot of people that we serve don’t get high. They don’t use [drugs]. They are just hard up.” 

Smith told the council she previously dealt with substance use disorder and has been clean for nearly five years. 

“This may be our city trying to go in the right direction of cleaning up the streets, and I definitely applaud all the homeowners coming out,” Smith continued. “I don’t see, from an addict’s standpoint, from a mother’s standpoint, from a citizen of Newark’s standpoint, I don’t feel that this ordinance is a step in the right direction.” 

What’s next?

Now that the proposed ordinance has been voted into full council, it will be read for the first time in full during the Oct. 7 council meeting. No vote will take place. The ordinance will be read a second time on Oct. 27, and the council will have an opportunity to vote on the proposal. 

Number of households struggling is on the rise in Licking, ALICE Community Partners meeting shows

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Sept. 12, 2024

Together, together, together. They repeated it over and over again. No matter who spoke, it rang out unfailingly during the Wednesday, Sept. 11 “community partners conversation” about low-income families in Licking County.

The community partners conversation, led by the United Way of Licking County and the Licking County Aging Partners, brought organizations from across the county to discuss ALICE: Asset Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed residents of Licking County. 

The term describes individuals and households who earn above the federal poverty level but less than what’s needed to survive in the current economy. 

“When ALICE struggles, we all struggle,” said Deb Dingus, executive director of the United Way of Licking County. “This is an opportunity for all of us to continue to provide programs, [and] support policies. Our community should come together.”

In Licking County, 37% of households — around 17,500 — fall in the ALICE threshold, and organizers are steadfast in ensuring the myriad causes are addressed.

Dingus, who is also a pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Newark, spoke first, laying out the need to be flexible and adaptable as a community, after a brief acknowledgment of the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Then it was time to address the increase in Licking County families in the ALICE threshold.

“The poverty level [in Licking County] has been staying fairly consistent,” said Cory Stutes, the community impact director of United Way of Licking County. “However, the folks that live within ALICE have really gone up. You can see in 2010 we were just over 12,000 households. And so in 2022, it was 17,500.”

And Stutes acknowledged that these figures were outdated. The number of households who meet the ALICE threshold in 2024 likely paint an even bleaker picture, one that needs more than a splash of hope, panelists said.

“This isn’t living in Licking County today,” Stutes said. “This is living in Licking County two years ago, which was a vastly different world than it is now. So we brought together a panel of experts.”

These experts included Ashley Washburn, executive director at Family Health Services of East Central Ohio Inc., Jenny Rice, a real estate consultant with The Raines Group, and Angela Carnahan, administrator for the Licking County Job and Family Services. 

Washburn stressed the burden that reliable healthcare and childcare weigh on families within or below the ALICE threshold.

“The biggest I see would be health care,” said Washburn. “I think Licking County has a lot of small businesses that are unable to afford to offer benefits. The affordability and availability are both a huge problem.”

Rice agreed and pointed to the  growing price of housing. 

“The average sales price has grown by 5.7% over the last year, and that is up to $239,000, up from $151,000 in 2022 and $120,000 in 2020,” Rice said. “We have doubled our housing average price.” 

Carnahan expanded on points made by the two other panelists  incorporating the perspectives of employees, employers, and the government. 

“From the job seeker side, we see a lot more homelessness. We see people who are working who don’t have a place to live,” said Carnahan. “From the employer side, they recognize that the job market is tight. And I feel like they have been trying to be more creative and open-minded when doing their hiring and their recruiting for employees.”

Carnahan spoke of some employers offering benefits and flexible hours to their employees, then brought it back to her work at Ohio Works First and explained the government perspective.

“When I was hired we probably had 13 workforce case managers. Each case manager had caseloads of 5- to- 600 families on cash assistance. Today, I will tell you that we have seven families on cash assistance,” said Carnahan.

Despite that remarkable drop in families needing cash assistance, Carnahan acknowledged that the responsibilities for employers and employees alike keep piling up.

“And now we have to pay for childcare so you can do that,” said Carnahan. “Now we have to help you with transportation so you can do that. Now we have to make sure you have clothes to do that. So it is more expensive.”

Newark residents remember lives lost amid ongoing overdose crisis

Originally Published for The Reporting Project on Sept. 3, 2024

As overdoses decrease locally and nationwide, Licking County residents are pushing to increase awareness of overdose and support for those struggling with substance use disorder through harm reduction practices and events. 

On Thursday, Aug. 29, community organizers in Newark hosted the community’s tenth annual Overdose Awareness Day Rally. The event, held from 5-7 p.m. at the Canal Market District, was hosted by Newark Homeless Outreach and OhioCAN, a nonprofit targeting substance use disorder. 

With 28 organizations present, visitors had access to myriad resources for substance use recovery, safe substance use, mental and physical healthcare, and a fierce sense of community support.

Beyond the tables and organizations, the rally also featured music, poetry and stories from people whose lives were touched by overdose and substance use disorder, hoping to inspire others to seek help and stay alive.

“I love the atmosphere of everybody kind of pitching in,” said Adyson Hull, whose father passed away from substance use disorder in 2019. “I just love to see the energy of everybody knowing that this is a problem and trying to take steps to make it better and help those in need.”

Tommy Mcallister, a formerly incarcerated man who struggled with substance use disorder, spoke as well. Mcallister found his way to recovery through the Day Reporting Program, a program run by Licking County Adult Court Services that teaches prevention and safety strategies to people with substance use disorder in place of jail. He’s grateful to live in a community that gives back and works to solve the problems of its people.

“It touches my heart that we do this,” Mcallister told The Reporting Project after speaking at the event. “I was glad I was able to be a part of it.”

Though the planning and execution of the rally went smoothly, there was a hiccup with public recognition. On holidays and during events, it is typical for the Licking County Courthouse to be lit with relevant colors — reds and greens around Christmas, blue and yellow in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and red, white and blue for holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day — but Licking County commissioners declined to light the courthouse purple in honor of Thursday’s rally or for International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31. 

Patricia Perry, founder of Newark Homeless Outreach, wrote to the Licking County commissioners in April this year, citing their previous response in December 2023 to Newark Ohio Pride’s request to light the County Courthouse. In that response, the commissioners explained that the courthouse would only be lit to recognize a national health crisis. 

“​​We also ask that you approve adding Overdose Awareness Day (a State recognized observance, per Ohio Senate Bill 30) to the list of Licking County Courthouse Lightings,” read the letter from Perry, Newark Homeless Outreach and OhioCAN.

In 2017, former President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a “public health emergency,” and called the ongoing overdose epidemic “the worst drug crisis in U.S. history.” Despite that declaration, Licking County commissioners declined to recognize the memorial day by lighting the courthouse last week. 

“Their response to our letter was not unexpected,” said Dr. Nestor Matthews, a volunteer with Newark Homeless Outreach. “There are a broad range of views on this topic, and some people do not recognise overdose or addiction as a disease in the way that many health organizations recognise it as a disease. I had a feeling that they might have a view that is not shared by most health professionals.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Drug Overdose Mortality By State statistics (2022), Ohio had the tenth-highest mortality rate in the country. Between 2018 and 2022, approximately 230 Licking Countians died from unintentional overdoses, according to the county coroner.

When asked for comment, the Licking County commissioners office did not respond to The Reporting Project.

Perry was not happy with the rejection of the lighting request, and has not had subsequent correspondence with the Licking County commissioners.

“[They] said please send [to] us and we will support the recognition of national overdose awareness,” Perry said on Thurs. Aug. 29. “Well, I sent them an email and asked them…. I specifically asked Tim Bubb to speak about the opioid settlement dollars. I never heard back.”

April flooding reveals gaps in communication and planning for emergency evacuations, meeting in May could provide missing links

Originally published for The Reporting Project on April 19, 2024

As rain fell in sheets on April 2, the Licking River rose quickly and a Newark city crew installed the floodgate across South 2nd Street in the Little Texas neighborhood, a collection of modest homes sitting in a vulnerable position at the confluence of the Licking River and the South Fork of the Licking River.

About the same time, police officers began telling residents of that neighborhood and the Canterbury Trails mobile home park, also on the south side along the South Fork, that they should consider evacuating their homes to avoid potential flooding.

But no one in Newark had informed the Licking County Emergency Management Agency that a voluntary evacuation was being considered, said EMA Director Sean Grady, and that left his agency a step behind when it came to implementing its action plan to work with its partners to set up a shelter.

The April 2 situation revealed that while some plans for emergency sheltering due to mass housing emergencies are in place, not everyone knows the details, said Deb Dingus, executive director of The United Way of Licking County. And the plans don’t cover all types of housing emergencies, she said. 

Her agency is inviting local first responders, social service agencies and local government officials to meet early in May to work toward closing gaps in communication and developing plans for emergencies that fall outside of those considered “disasters” commonly handled by EMA and the Red Cross – blizzards, fires, floods and tornadoes. 

Those other emergencies would include situations such as one that developed into a housing crisis last summer when about 60 residents of a Buckeye Lake motel were told by a local building inspector to evacuate the facility.

“We want to do a better job of being prepared and getting ahead of communication for mass housing emergencies,” Dingus said. “They can be from an eviction, health issue, flood, fire, or tornado. The situation is the same, and the question is, how can we best help people who are suddenly finding themselves unsheltered because of these situations?

“I’d like to see these plans in writing and shared, and then have a regular meeting to discuss our disaster readiness,” she said.

Grady said that in times of bad weather, his EMA team closely monitors the conditions, and on April 2, he said, “We knew it was going to be close.” 

“There was a lot of angst,” he said. “We were sending advisories that it was going to be close, but didn’t expect it to get to the point of needing a shelter.”

Sign up for EMA advisories here: https://signup.hyper-reach.com/hyper_reach/sign_up_page_2/?id=112923.

When any local emergency responders feel the time has come for evacuation, he said, they need to contact the EMA immediately so that it can activate the emergency plans that involve a network of partners and volunteers.

“Newark should have reached out to us,” he said.

Newark Safety Director Tim Hickman said he wasn’t aware of that protocol.

“No, there’s no plan that I’m aware of that’s in place; it’s just a case-by-case, incident-by-incident type of situation. No, there’s no talks or any sort of legislation at this point,” Hickman said.

Newark Police Sgt. Chuck Wilhelm said the situation in which they found themselves on April 2 is not one the department has experienced often.

“It was right around 4 o’clock (that) they put the floodgates up on Second Street. I’ve only seen those up two times in my career, and I’ve been here for 33 years,” Wilhelm said.

So, at the request of the Newark Fire Department, police officers began asking residents to leave their homes to avoid potential flooding.

“The way our shifts work, the first shift and second shift overlap for like an hour and a half,” Wilhelm said. “So we had all kinds of cruisers and all kinds of manpower, so we just hit the neighborhoods and asked people to voluntarily evacuate at the request of the fire department.”

But that left residents wondering: If we leave, where should we go?

Some took to social media asking that question and wondering whether there was a plan for such emergencies. In the end, most did not leave their homes, and, fortunately, flooding was minimal and the floodgates were removed by 10 a.m. the next day.

Grady said there’s definitely a plan, and he is grateful for all of the partners who work to implement it. Chief among them is the Red Cross and its partners. In this case, it was Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on West Main Street, which scrambled volunteers in less than an hour after being contacted by the Red Cross to open the church by 6 p.m. to serve as a shelter.

The Red Cross then showed up with its trailer full of supplies and volunteers to staff the shelter.

“The way it works,” said Rod Cook, executive director of the Red Cross East Central Ohio Chapter, “is that Sean Grady makes the call whether or not evacuations are needed, and the EMA triggers us to open a shelter. We have pre-identified locations set up so that we know how to contact folks, especially after hours, so we can open a shelter.”

He said the national standard for the Red Cross is to have a shelter set up within two hours of being alerted to the need. So the message from Grady is that the sooner the EMA office gets the call, the sooner the Red Cross can spring into action. 

“We have these pre-signed agreements with partners ahead of time, and have all of our supplies – cots, blankets, paperwork, nurses kits – in a trailer ready to go. Food depends on the situation. We have feeding agreements in place with partners.”

In addition to those partners, they communicate with the Licking County Health Department to spread awareness on social media.

“Our job there really is to promote it,” said Health Commissioner Chad Brown. “I got a call from Sean Grady at Licking County EMA saying that the Red Cross was going to go to Holy Trinity Church. All we did was put on Facebook that the shelter was open.”

The Health Department offered Holy Trinity additional staff and a nurse, but fortunately, neither were needed. 

Licking Memorial Hospital provided food for the shelter, said Dingus, who in addition to being the United Way director is also pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, site of the temporary shelter.

“The hospital provided hot dogs, chips and fruit, and we had some food for breakfast,” she said, adding that the shelter “consistently had about six people” from soon after it opened at 6 p.m. until about 9 a.m. the next day.

The shelter was on alert in the middle of the night for the possibility of more evacuees after Heath authorities notified Grady well after midnight that they feared the South Fork of the Licking River could swamp homes along Licking View Drive. The water ultimately came within inches of the roadway, Grady said, but didn’t get to the homes.

Grady and Cook said the network of partners and volunteers is key to the success of such operations.

“Even as we speak, we have teams up in Bucyrus,” said Cook, whose Red Cross chapter covers 12 counties – Crawford, Coshocton, Knox, Marion, Morrow and Richland to the north, and Guernsey, Licking, Muskingum, Morgan, Noble and Perry to the east and south of its home base in Newark.

Crawford County is where storms that may have included tornadoes damaged homes and other buildings in and near Bucyrus on April 17. In the past month, Cook said, his Red Cross chapter has responded to seven counties related to bad-weather emergencies. And that does not include incidents such as the two-alarm fire in March in downtown Newark that displaced 24 residents of the historic Avalon Building. 

“We do it with our dedicated volunteers,” he said. “They are absolutely critical. We have so many, from churches, to social service organizations to government agencies.”

He said some people think the Red Cross is a government agency or funded by the government. “We are a private, nonprofit organization that is dependent on our local communities. However, our disaster services are mandated by Congress but not funded by Congress.”

Looking to the future, Dingus said she’s eager to see everyone’s plans and to make sure that any gaps between them are filled.

“The EMA, the Red Cross, the Health Department – they are all good people and all have plans,” she said. “We need an organized, overall plan” that includes those mass housing emergencies that are triggered by something other than a fire or natural disaster.

And the overall plan should look to a future that includes the effects of the tight housing market in Licking County and the impact of climate change, which could require such things as designated cooling centers in the heat of summer.

“We need to create long-term, temporary housing,” Dingus said. “God forbid we had a tornado that (hits many houses). Where would we set up FEMA trailers? And who helps with the cost of this? Do we have money set aside for these emergencies?”

Grady said he is looking forward to the broader conversation about planning and preparedness.

“We’re pushing the preparedness message,” he said. “As much as possible, we are trying to get people to be more resilient – to be aware of your surroundings and be prepared, and we want to keep people informed so they can be safe.”

“We learn something new from every event,” he said.

Future is uncertain for fire-ravaged Avalon Building and many former residents who still have no permanent housing

Originally published for The Reporting Project on April 18, 2024

Family is everything to Tiffany Kelley, so when her mother, Judy Binckley, was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, moving in together was a no-brainer. 

In 2019, they moved into the historic Avalon Building, a landmark in downtown Newark. The Avalon was saved from demolition in 2004 with a renovation project designed to provide housing to low-income seniors 55 and older. 

Kelley was determined to turn their apartment into a beautiful home, going out of her way to thrift antiques and craft a cozy, comfortable aesthetic for her and Binckley.

“I was so proud, because I was building up our apartment,” Kelley said. “It’s just me and mom, so we don’t have a lot. But I bought a new couch six months ago.”

Her efforts paid off. The view of the historic Licking County Courthouse two blocks east of their bay window was complemented by antique furniture Kelley meticulously collected. 

On Saturday, March 23, a two-alarm fire ravaged the 124-year-old Avalon Building. All 24 residents in 20 senior apartments made it out of the burning building without injury, and many found immediate shelter in the Licking County Library across the street. 

Nearly a month after the fire, more than half of those former residents are still looking for permanent housing, according to local officials.

Damage to the building was severe, but after an initial inspection, structural engineers said that the building was stable enough for former residents to retrieve belongings, according to Nathan Keirns, chief executive officer of LEADS, the Newark-based community action agency that owns the Avalon Building.

The agency hired a contractor to install durable plastic sheets over charred holes in the roof of the Victorian-era landmark on West Main Street.

Now that rain isn’t falling into the structure, Keirns said inspection teams will pull down drywall to get a closer look at the bones of the building to determine whether it can be restored.

Hours after the blaze on March 23, fire officials and Keirns were concerned that fire damage and the amount of water poured by firefighters onto the east end of the Avalon might have weakened the structure.

Demolition is still a possibility, but Keirns said LEADS should know within a week or two whether it can be restored.

“Our goal remains to save it,” he said. “We’re looking at all contingencies.”

In the days and weeks that followed the fire, residents were forced to seek other accommodations. Some were able to move in with family and friends, at least temporarily, while others secured apartments in an already limited housing market.

But others, like Kelley and Binckley and their two cats, remain in hotels while the building undergoes inspection.

The community in Newark responded to their needs with haste. Newark Homeless Outreach founder Patricia Perry posted on Facebook about the fire and the victims’ need for resources.

“The community is phenomenal,” she said. “We post a need and we normally have it quickly. It was an overwhelming amount of support. That night when I got home, my front porch was full of stuff. I got it to them the next day. What they were able to use, they used.”

What they were unable to use, the organization passed along to others, like their neighbor who goes by the name Colors, who alerted everyone in the building of the fire. 

“The electrical unit right above her apartment caught on fire,” Kelley said.

The fire spread into Colors’, 304, where she and her uncle discovered the fire. “We heard a loud pop, like a bullet shot,” said Colors. “Like POW!”

She called 911, and ran into the hall, knocking on her neighbors’ doors to alert everyone to get out.

“She’s the one that saved us all,” Kelley said. 

By the time Kelley and her mother were awake, the fire had spread significantly. 

“At 10:30 in the morning, my alarm was going off, and then I heard the fire alarm,” Kelley said. “I’m still half asleep. I’m thinking they’re testing them because they do that regularly. The next thing I heard was the pounding on the door, ‘Get out! The building is on fire.’ As soon as the door opened with the firemen, you [could] smell the smoke, you knew that it was actually on fire.”

Binckley and Kelley had to leave so quickly that they could not retrieve their cats, Jake and Walter. 

“My mom’s cat was in the window trying to get out. I ran up to the firemen and asked him if he could just please break the window so that my cat could get out. And he said that it would jeopardize the firemen if they did that. So they couldn’t get him. His little face was in the window,” Kelley said.

Luckily, on Friday, March 29, Jake and Walter both returned alive and well, albeit dirty. Kelley and Binckley were over the moon to be reunited, as are their resilient feline companions.

Following the fire, Binckley and Kelley found shelter at the America’s Best Value Inn in Heath.

“It’s a good feeling and a good position to be in to be able to help when the call for need comes in,” said Amanda Farley, front desk manager and assistant general manager at the inn.

The day of the fire, Kelley reached out to her boss, Joshua McLaughlin, at the Holiday Inn Express in Heath to ask for the day off that day because of the fire, and to ask if she and her mother could stay in one of the spare rooms that evening. 

She said he told her that it was still early in the day and she could make it to her second-shift job, and he would not give her a room at the hotel.

“He told me it was against policy,” Kelley said. “I said, ‘One of your employees has just lost everything they own in a house fire. And you can’t give me one room to bring my mother? She has cancer.” 

Kelley has since lost her job at the hotel, although McLaughlin said he did not fire her. 

“She’s saying this whole side of the story like she’s this victim, when it’s not the case at all,” he told The Reporting Project. “This is her trying to play the victim. ‘Oh, poor me, my house burned down and they fired me, too.’ It’s typical Tiffany.” 

Without a job, finding housing has become even more complicated for Kelley, who has already been turned down by a landlord due to lack of employment. 

The tight housing market in Newark complicates the search. Because of low supply and high demand, housing prices and rents have increased dramatically in Licking County and across central Ohio in recent years. 

“We’ve been battling this for years,” Rod Cook, executive director of the East Central Ohio Red Cross Chapter in Newark, said in March. “The shortage of affordable housing creates big issues for us in finding places for people to relocate.”

The county experienced a similar crisis last summer when up to 60 people were forced out of a Buckeye Lake motel after a building inspector said he found health and safety issues there.

Despite all of their hardships and obstacles, Kelley and Binckley remain resilient and grateful. 

“God just stepped in where we couldn’t. And he’s taken care of everything,” Binckley said. “I can’t fathom the goodness of people. Now that’s money out of their pocket that they’re giving.”

On Easter Sunday, March 31, Kelley and Binckley moved to the DoubleTree Hotel in Newark, where their renters’ insurance will keep them sheltered for the time being. Kelley credits her mother’s preparedness. 

“Mom saved the day with her renter’s insurance. She thinks about all that stuff. And she had it,” Kelley said. 

Not everyone in the Avalon was so lucky.

“Coming from the shelter, trying to just survive, It [renters insurance] just wasn’t important to me at that time,” said Colors, who spent time at the Salvation Army shelter in Newark. “Being that it is not a tenant’s fault, I’m hoping that the landlords will help us get back on our feet regardless of whether we had renters insurance or not.”

Without renters insurance, getting compensation for lost belongings and finding a new place to live becomes a steep hill with little traction. Colors is still experiencing intense trauma from the incident, and anxiety from her shelter insecurity. 

“You try to focus and think that everything is going to be okay, but I’m devastated because I’ve actually seen the fire,” Colors said. “I wake up sometimes and I’m dreaming that this fire is there. I never imagined not having no clothes, not having no food. I feel empty.”

It’s not clear where Colors is currently staying, but she does have a gofundme set up with the goal of $5,000.

Despite trauma, and their futures being up in the air, Kelley, Binckley, and Colors are still looking out for each other.

“Tiffany brought me a coat here and brought me some shirts because we literally didn’t have no clothes,” Colors said. 

Licking County’s volunteer-operated emergency warming shelter struggling to meet growing need

Originally published for The Reporting Project on March 21, 2024

There are 23 government-operated warming centers — a short-term emergency shelter location open during extreme low temperatures — in the greater Cincinnati area. 

There are nine in Columbus. 

There are four in Cleveland. 

But the sole warming center in Licking County — where more than 200 people are homeless on any given night, according to a recent census conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development — is run entirely by volunteers from a coalition of local nonprofits, churches and emergency response agencies.

And the center, run out of a repurposed church basement and framed by cloth drapes and garbage bag-covered windows to block streetlights, has been open just six days in 2024. 

In Licking County, 13 in every 10,000 residents are unsheltered. That’s significantly higher than counties with similar populations like Medina County, where just two people per 10,000 residents are unsheltered. 

When temperatures drop below freezing, the private citizens who provide support struggle to meet the constant, growing need.

Developing a warming center

Until 2019, there were zero warming shelters in Licking County, but when subzero temperatures, snow emergencies and Winter Storm Jayden came through in late January, there was no time for delay. 

On Jan. 29 that year, Jeff Gill, then pastor of Newark’s Central Christian Church, got some troubling news from a colleague in charge of developing a pop-up warming center: they hadn’t planned ahead. 

“He said … ‘I guess we’ll have to work on that for next year,’” Gill remembered. Then, “I said some stuff a preacher shouldn’t say in his church office.” 

After that conversation, he sent two emails: one to the chair of the board, and another to the chair of trustees at Central Christian. 

“God bless them. Both of them got back to me within 5- 6 minutes and said: ‘I’m at work but I support you. What do you think we should do?’” Gill said.

The Licking County Emergency Warming Center was opened at Newark’s Central Christian Church that year, alongside another at the now-closed Disciple Factory.

The location changed the next year to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Newark.

“Our community was looking at the homeless situation and getting ready to do some attempts to address chronic homelessness in the county, which led to a homelessness task force,” said Deb Dingus, the pastor at Holy Trinity.

The following year, Dingus began conversations to get other entities involved. From there, more task force members joined the coalition, as did the Licking County Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross. 

“Once the task force was put into existence, LMH [Licking Memorial Hospital] has provided the food,” said Patricia Perry, task force member and head of Newark Homeless Outreach, an organization that provides resources to unhoused people every Saturday.

On top of food, Licking Memorial Hospital has provided transportation, bringing people who are unsheltered to Holy Trinity. 

More than a warming center

Beyond food and transport, volunteers at the warming center at Holy Trinity provide kindness. 

Task force member Linda Mossholder has seen how small gestures can warm people’s hearts. She goes out of her way to remember the little things about people, and the guests at the warming center are pleasantly surprised when she brings them their coffee orders, memorized.

“[One guest] said, ‘you know, nobody has ever asked me even what I want in my coffee, let alone remember what I take in it,’” Mossholder said. “And he says, ‘That means a lot to me.’” 

Perry has witnessed similar joy when bringing tobacco and rolling papers to guests at the warming center. 

“It’s just about going outside and having a cup of coffee and a cigarette,” Perry said. “They [people utilizing the shelter] are used to having to look over their shoulders, but in that warming center, it’s 100% a safe space.”

To increase accessibility, the warming center has no barriers to entry, meaning those with pets and those using substances are welcome — atypical for shelters in Licking County. 

“We’re saving people from freezing to death,” said Nancy Welu, the volunteer coordinator of the Licking County Emergency Warming Center Task Force and the academic administrative assistant for Denison University’s anthropology department.

“You’re going to be warm,” she said. “You’re going to be treated with respect. You’re going to have a full belly.”

While their services spread love and care, the reality volunteers and guests at the warming center face reflect a society that does not do the same. 

“You have folks that are working full-time jobs, and they’re coming to the warming shelter because it’s too cold to sleep in their car,” Dingus said. “The best thing to do is get to know people and get to know their particular stories and start helping people where they’re at.”

Dingus lives by these words, going above and beyond to get to know her community members and their needs, no matter their situation.

Growing population, growing need

While interactions at the warming center are soul-stirring, the need for it is indicative of a growing oversight.

According to HUD, about 10,654 people were unhoused on a given night in Ohio in 2022, or around nine per 10,000 people in the state. At least 215 of those people were homeless in Licking County, according to the Licking County Coalition for Housing. 

In 2024, though, that population has grown to 237 people — a more than 10% increase in just two years. 

According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, hypothermia deaths can occur in temperatures as warm as 40 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature remains in the 40-degree range or below, unhoused and unsheltered people are in danger. 

Even so, Newark’s warming center is unable to open until the temperature falls below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. 

“We want it to be consistent,” said Red Cross Senior Disaster Program Manager and task force member Tim Callahan. “[If] it’s 10 degrees this week, [and if] next week it’s 15 degrees, then people get confused.”

Volunteer availability also complicates the warming center’s ability to open at higher temperatures.

“I know folks in the community would like us to activate sooner than that, but for every five degrees, you’re going to be open more, which then takes more volunteers,” Welu said.

Finding volunteers is difficult, and the center’s attendance is growing.

“Last year, we were averaging 37 [people looking for shelter per night],” Dingus said. “This last time that we were open we were somewhere between 39 to 43.”

That may not sound like a drastic increase, but as these numbers rise, so does the need for volunteers to manage the many resources required to run the center. Welu is well aware of this difficulty.

“Last year when we were open for three days at Christmas I took it upon myself to wash all the blankets,” Welu said. “I just paid out of pocket to have them all cleaned… about 150 bucks to get a couple hundred.”

This year, with the help of task force member and Pathways of Central Ohio member Kristin McCloud , the group obtained $360 worth of gift cards to cover the cost of washing the blankets.

Long-term solutions, not Band-Aids

After a 50-day walk around Licking County in 2016, Dingus said she knew the region needed a low-barrier shelter. 

“I was seeing and actually sleeping outside for 50 nights,” Dingus said. “I was hearing and learning from people who were experiencing homelessness.” 

The need, she said, is to create a shelter without sobriety or income requirements. Those low-barrier shelters exist without policies that “make it difficult to enter the shelter, stay in the shelter, or access housing and income opportunities,” according to National Alliance to End Homelessness.

But Perry said that’s still out of reach, in part because local leadership doesn’t have the funds — or the motivation — to create the low-barrier shelter. 

And public officials, including Newark Mayor Jeff Hall and County Commissioner Tim Bubb, said a low-barrier shelter isn’t in the cards. 

“The money almost has to come through a levy or something county-wide and there hasn’t been a desire,” said Newark Mayor Jeff Hall.

Commissioner Bubb agreed.

“At the moment, I’m not aware of any efforts in the county to do a low-barrier shelter,” said Bubb.

While county officials may not have their boots on the ground every day like Perry, Bubb and co-commissioner Duane Flowers said they’re working to provide aid, funding and support. 

“Not just money, but also materials and also support,” Bubb said. “We coordinated with the churches that have done that over the past several years to provide cots and support for the warming centers as needed.” 

Advocates like Perry and Deborah Tegtmeyer, the executive director of LCCH, believe that without a city or county buy-in, there is no realistic way to get a year-round low-barrier shelter off the ground in Licking County. 

“I don’t know if it’s going to happen in the next 10 years. I really don’t,” Tegtmeyer said. “We could certainly use one with the infusion of money coming to this community,” said Tegtmeyer.

With temperatures dropping below freezing this mid-March week, the warming center task force remains vigilant.

“We’re doing the best we can do without more volunteers,” Perry said. “If anybody wants to volunteer, reach out to Nancy Welu!”

Democrats vie to bring new voices, diverse perspectives to County Commissioner race

Originally published for The Reporting Project on March 16, 2024

Two Democratic candidates for Licking County Commissioner will face off in the March 19 primary election, vying to bring new voices and diverse perspectives to an office held exclusively by Republicans since 2008. 

Democrats Bryn Bird and Daniel Crawford will challenge each other for the chance to go head-to-head with incumbent Republican County Commissioner Duane Flowers in November. 

Flowers is one of three Licking County commissioners responsible for supervising various government entities across the county — one of the fastest-growing counties in the state after Intel’s announcement of its $20 billion dollar “Silicon Heartland” project. Building code enforcement, planning and development, recycling and litter, water and wastewater, child support enforcement and animal control services, among others, fall under their purview. 

Once elected, commissioners serve 4-year terms and, beginning in 2025, will earn a salary of $86,988. Between 2025 and 2028 — the winner’s final year of their term in office — that salary will rise to $91,635. 

And as the county changes rapidly, both Bird, 40, and Crawford, 38, stressed the importance of managing growth and development. 

Bird is currently serving her second term as a Granville Township trustee, and is hoping to tackle infrastructure demands and natural resource protection as Intel moves in. 

“I have an agricultural background, and then I have a background in public health, and then as a township trustee,” she said. “I think that all of those have just really been able to shape the way I look at the community.”

Bird said her background has helped her see how “we are not isolated. We don’t work in our individual silos.” 

“Much of the work in development and in growth and opportunities really is multi-jurisdictional,” she explained. “Really, the county commissioner kind of holds that role.”  

Crawford, the assistant front-end lead at Giant Eagle in Heath, wants to make the Licking County government more transparent and accountable to county residents. 

His primary concerns, he told The Reporting Project, include a lack of transparency from current Licking County commissioners and their weekly meeting minutes. 

“They’re not detailed at all,” he said. “All [the minutes say] is there was a discussion on this, but it doesn’t say what they said. And that’s a problem. That’s a major transparency issue.” 

Public trust in the federal government is at record lows in the United States, and that eroding public trust has extended to local and state governments, a September 2023 Gallup poll found. 

“All institutions have below-average trust levels compared with historical Gallup norms dating back to the early 1970s,” Gallup reported in October last year. 

Crawford wants to make sure Licking County residents can trust their leaders. 

“The biggest thing I want to do is make sure that people have a reason to trust our government again, and know that there’s someone who really is looking out for them,” Crawford said. “I want to be the megaphone of the people to the best of my ability.” 

Government transparency, Crawford said, means acknowledging problems like homelessness and the lack of affordable housing and reliable public transportation, and tackling them head-on within the county.

Both Bird and Crawford agree new voices are needed at the county level. 

“It’s a change in perspective. It’s a new voice. And I think we need that,” Bird said. 

Bird stresses that a new perspective does not mean changing the landscape of the community, but rather finding new ways to bolster its identity. 

“We already have such a strong community and we want to keep that strong community,” Bird said.

Bird saw just how strong the community was back in 2014 with the Canal Market District project.

“I helped spearhead the Canal Market District in Newark. In that role, I was really able to just see how amazing Licking County is, in working together to get something done in a positive way. You just don’t see that in other places,” Bird said. 

Outside of her work for the market district, Bird has helped run Bird’s Haven Farms — a family farm started by her parents 29 years ago — located just a few miles north of Granville. 

Bird decided to run after her peers on both sides of the political aisle encouraged her to do so. She is also involved in the Framework Leadership Team in Licking County. 

Crawford said he ran to “make sure people have a choice,” he explained. This is his seventh time as a candidate in Licking County, though his previous six runs — all unsuccessful — were for other offices. 

“Having a primary opponent was completely accidental,” he said. “I have no ill feelings or anything towards her in a negative way at all.” 

Two county commissioners are up for election this year, including Flowers. Republican Commissioner Tim Bubb’s seat is also up for reelection, and he will face Democrat James Snedden in the general election come November. 

Flowers, who has served as a commissioner since 2012, believes in smaller government and individual freedoms. 

 “I believe that the individual should be in control of his own life,” Flowers told The Reporting Project in March. “I thought government was getting too aggressive, you know, taking the responsibility of the individual away.”

Flowers’ top priority right now is infrastructure, focusing on water, sewage, road  and affordable housing, especially with Intel and other companies coming into the county. 

“I think right now we need to take a pause and get caught up,” Flowers said. “Not only Intel, I mean we’ve got Google, Facebook, Microsoft. They were all brought in with the state giving out tax abatements and not really looking at the infrastructure and we as commissioners are now faced with [the question]: How are we going to handle all this infrastructure?”

In 1976, Flowers launched his own construction company, and has worked on projects like shopping malls, retirement centers, banks and custom homes throughout Licking County. Between 2000 and 2012, he was the mayor in Hanover.

Bubb remains delighted at the chance to continue growing as County Commissioner.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to lead county government during a period of growth in Licking County. I love the opportunity and the challenges that go with it,” Bubb said. 

Bubb also voiced good will toward Crawford and Bird in their primary and subsequent race in November.

“I wish them good luck. It takes a lot of courage to run for public office. They’re both good people,” Bubb said. “The winner of that potentially will run against my fellow County Commissioner Duane Flowers in November. And I’m sure they’ll have a spirited race.”

A recipe for recovery

Originally published for The Reporting Project on Feb. 14, 2024

She didn’t feel good. He wouldn’t talk to her, and she didn’t understand why. Weed wasn’t going to cut it this time, but something stronger might. She knew he sold Percocet. Maybe it would change the way she felt.

“Instead of taking it, I saw on TV that they snort it,” said Mallory Meeker. “Let’s go from 0 to 100 right now. So that’s what I did. And I remember the first time I did that: I’ve been waiting to feel this my whole life.”

She kept with it. She didn’t feel like herself, which was perfect because she didn’t like being with herself. Mind-altering substances were a perfect short-term solution for her problem, but part of a deadly and dangerous trend in Licking County. 

In 2022, 50 people died from drug overdoses in Licking County, Ohio: one in every 3,600 people in the county. The ages of those deceased range from as young as 19 to as old as 64. 

“Wherever I went, I took me with me and I was miserable,” said Meeker. “It was because I hated myself.” 

This led Meeker towards opiates like heroin and fentanyl for their numbing effects, as well as crack and crystal meth for their strength. At the time, she was still working as a personal banker.

“I wanted to be the most annihilated I possibly could,” said Meeker. “I wanted to not feel as much as I possibly could.” 

With this desire came crime, as Meeker needed money to support her substance use. Her crimes and arrests ranged from trespassing and theft to possession of drug abuse instruments and DUI/OVI charges. Meeker was arrested in Franklin, Fairfield and Licking counties, and eventually lost her job at the bank after overdosing in the parking lot while on a break.

Meeker also spent quite a bit of time unhoused and on the streets in Licking County. 

“There were nights where we would just walk around because if you stop the police are going to ask you what you’re doing. I always had drugs on me or or needles and and usually warrants,” Meeker said. 

The street could be an incredibly hostile environment, and often felt even more so for people like Meeker due to the constant threat of arrest. And escaping homelessness was a significant challenge: without a job or an income, she couldn’t find shelter, warm clothes or food. 

“I stole from stores every single day for food, [and] I would steal clothing to support my drug habit,” Meeker said. “It’s crazy to go from being a personal banker at a bank here in town to a year or two later and walking through the bank parking lot with a book bag. And that’s all I have to my name.” 

She began attending rehabilitation meetings to try and help her get off of substances but relapsed quickly despite still attending. She tried to hide the fact that she had begun to use again. 

“Those people I met in the meetings, they were praying for me. I had built a life there,” Meeker said. “Well, they kept praying for me, and I got so mad that they pray for me because that meant that, like, this facade was up.”

Eventually, after being arrested for credit card theft, she was allowed to attend Day Reporting, a school-like program that provides people with helpful strategies and education, in place of jail.

“I always call it ‘don’t do drugs college,’” she said. “It gives us a place to be. That’s what we need when we first get out of jail because they say idle hands are the devil’s workshop and [stuff] like that.”

A 12-step program also helped Meeker to find her own identity without using substances, which was very difficult when she began her recovery. Drugs were her normal, and sobriety put an uncertain haze over every action. Getting groceries, doing laundry and cooking while sober was inconceivable at the start of her journey. 

“I imagine what it’s like when a child gets those cochlear implants,” said Meeker “It’s almost like seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, touching life for the first time without a filter over it.” 

For 30 days before Day Reporting, Mallory found herself in a sober living house, where she learned how to take back the initiative in her life. Once she completed Day Reporting and had not been using substances for a while, she began to work for the same organization, Whole Living Recovery. 

“When I go over there to work, they let me leave when I’m ready to go home,” Meeker said with a laugh. “They never used to let me leave.” 

Meeker still keeps her mugshot on the fridge at the recovery house she works in, as a reminder of how far she has come.

“Those pictures on the fridge, those two people and who we are today- that’s still the same person but a completely different life that we’re living today,” Meeker said. 

This transformation was not easy, and Meeker is eternally grateful to the systems in place in her community for giving her support when she needed it the most. 

“We owe that [who they are today] to this community, the nonprofits, this organization, Newark, our county. There’s so many people that have donated their time, money, food, clothing to help save our lives.”

Meeker also recognizes the benefit this has had on everyone else in her life.

“It’s not just us whose lives are changed. It’s our children’s lives, our parents. I imagine when my mom tucks her grandchildren in at night she probably sleeps a lot better knowing I’m not dead or in a ditch or being raped.”

Going through these brutal hardships has shown Meeker the value of empathy, and brought her to her purpose. Meeker is not one to mince words, she is a person of brutal but necessary honesty. She knows no one will understand what it’s like abusing substances and being on the street unless they are told, and it can’t be sugarcoated. 

“God has been so good to me. He’s used so many different elements or ingredients in this community to have this huge recipe for recovery,” Meeker said. “I think it’s because he knew people like me are not going to be quiet about it.”

Meeker has not been quiet. From using her voice to speak at rallies and on behalf of incarcerated individuals to helping people who use drugs stay safe and raising awareness, Meeker is doing everything she can to give back to her community.